•December 23, 2015•

By Ariana Cherry
For the News Progress

The Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond School Board approved its 4.97% property tax levy for taxes payable in 2016 at its most recent school board meeting.

The district also voted to abate the sales tax for year 2015 to pay debt service on General Obligation Bonds which is an alternate revenue source. The sales tax is the primary revenue source to pay for the junior high addition. If something happens to the sales tax, then the district would have to use property taxes,” Superintendent Kenny Schwengel said.

Supt. Schwengel stated that all funds are in the black and the checkbook has around $6.177 million. “We are still waiting on reorganization money. We haven’t received any special education funds or transportation money.The general state aid funding will come through in June at a reduced rate of 92%,” he said.

Other matters that were discussed or voted upon: Read More

•December 16, 2015•

Meeting Opens with Prayer

By Mike Brothers

The Moultrie County board  approved employee appreciation bonuses at the December meeting.

Budget and finance committee chair Ron White moved that full time employees receive a net $200 bonus with part-time employees receiving proportional amounts.

Board chairman Dave McCabe explained that the bonuses were excluded from the Health Dept., elected officials and those covered under collective bargaining contracts. The board approved the $8165 total in bonuses unanimously.

Opening the meeting with a prayer for the first time was Father John Sohm of St. Columcille Catholic Church in Sullivan. Prayer was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

White proposed to invest $7500 in Sullivan Economic Development Commission’s No Job Left Behind program. This was a $2000 increase over the previous budget year. The measure was approved unanimously.

The Code Red five year contract totaling $7,749.40 annually was approved. Code Red Director Jan Haegan explained the contract includes the automated weather alert system which calls individuals within a watch area in the event of tornado, floods and other natural disasters.

Haegan may also get onto the Code Red web site to discover if other dangerous situations require automatic telephone alerts.

“If a tanker overturned causing a dangerous gas leak,” Haegan said, “the system would then call everyone within the evacuation area in a couple of minutes.” Read More